Solved Installing new SSD.. turns into System Reserved?

[Steele]

My system has Win7 installed on a 120GB SSD, I have a 1TB HD and a 64GB SSD for data.

I have been running this for about 5 months.

I just installed another 120GB SSD, turned my PC back on and the drive has a System Reserved label and only seems to be 90MB?

All the posts I have researched, only relate to new installs and the System Reserved being a partition on the OS drive or something of the like..

Could anyone tell me how to fix my situation.. I just want to have another 120GB drive as a data dump and install software on.

Thanks in advance

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Hello Steele, welcome to Seven Forums!

Please post a snip of a maximized Windows 7 disk management for a look before we make any suggestions, Windows 7 has issues with recognizing the HDD/SSDs in the correct order sometime and this may be the case.

How to Upload and Post a Screenshot
​

 

[Steele]

Disk Management Screenshot

Could I just remove and add it again?

It also seems to be showing it twice?

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Why do you say twice? I see 64, two 120s, and a 1 TB. Is that not correct?

You have 2 System Reserved partitions.

You should only have 1 and it should be on the same disk as C, which is disk 1 in your case.

Disk 2 appears to have no partitions at this point.

 

[Steele]

Well C = 120GB
D = 64GB
G = 1TB
E = 120GB?
F = 120GB?

E&F both have System Reserved next to them?

I just want the new 120GB to act like the 64GB?

Could the 1TB have an older win7 partition on it?

 

[Steele]

Oh I think I see,

Disk 0 is the 64
disk 1 is the 1tb, but it has a partition
disk2 is the new 120GB SSD, it needs to be allocated?
disk 3 is my ols 120GB SSD with my OS on it

So Should I collapse the partition on the 1tb somehow?

Then alloate? not sure what that means, the new 120GB SSD?
Do I just create a new simple volume on this one?

 

[Steele]

Sorry, a bit slow, but think I am slowly getting it...

My course of action will be:

Format the F partiction on the G drive and then shrink the drive
Create a simple drive on the Disk2

that should do it?

But I am a little unsure what Active means on the F drive on Disk1?

Will I need it?

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Not sure I am following you.

Windows is on Disk 3. Is that where you want Windows?

Disk 1 appears to be completely empty, no data.

What is the purpose of disks 0, 1, and 2? To hold data only? Or to hold some type of operating system?

System Reserved partitions do not normally have drive letters. I'm guessing you did that?

If this is a single operating system PC, the typical way to install Windows is to first disconnect all hard drives other than the one to which Windows is installed. Looks like you did not do that.

If you had done that, you would have 1 System Reserved, marked active, with C on the same drive.

You could mark the E partition active, then disconnect disk 1 entirely, and see if the PC will boot. If it does, then reconnect disk 1 and delete the system reserved partition from it.

If that fails, I'd probably start from scratch---disconnect all drives other than the one that you want to have Windows, and then reinstall.

 

[whs]

Disconnect Disk 1 and see whether your system boots.

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Here's the best way forward.


Power down the PC and disconnect all the HDD/SSDs and reconnect the SSD that is now connected to disk 3 to the #1 SATA port of the motherboard leaving all the others disconnected, then in the PC BIOS set that as the first boot device.

Then using Option Two of this tutorial mark that System Reserved as the Active partition and do the 3 separate startup repairs in Option One to make that the System partition.

Startup Repair - Run 3 Separate Times
​

After that's done you can power down and reconnect the other HDD/SSDs

 

[Steele]

Windows is on Disk 3. Is that where you want Windows?

Windows is on Disk 3 (C) where it has been since I installed it about 5 months ago.

Disk 1 appears to be completely empty, no data.

This was an old install of win&, I formatted the drive. It seems to have a partition that i did not notice before

What is the purpose of disks 0, 1, and 2? To hold data only? Or to hold some type of operating system?

Disk0, 1 and 2 are just to hold files and applications.

System Reserved partitions do not normally have drive letters. I'm guessing you did that?

Nope

If this is a single operating system PC, the typical way to install Windows is to first disconnect all hard drives other than the one to which Windows is installed. Looks like you did not do that.

Actually, I did that, but 5 months ago. I added the new drive today and this happened

If you had done that, you would have 1 System Reserved, marked active, with C on the same drive.

You could mark the E partition active, then disconnect disk 1 entirely, and see if the PC will boot. If it does, then reconnect disk 1 and delete the system reserved partition from it.

If that fails, I'd probably start from scratch---disconnect all drives other than the one that you want to have Windows, and then reinstall.

Realy hope I dont have to do this

Could I not just set E to active... disconect as you said and then if I get issues, use the OS CD to boot and repair?

I think I might have confused things as I thought my new drive was shoing up as the system reserved ones... bit it isnt, I just need to create a simple drive there I think.

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

If you're just trying to format disk 2 just right click, simple volume and follow the prompts.

 

[Steele]

Sorry, new to these forums and that last reply seems not to have worked as I thought it would.

After my own confusion, I now realise that the issue I have is, that Disk1 seems to have a partition I did not know about, and when I plugged it in after a while of not using it, it seems to have effected the current setup I have.

I need to investigate if not having Disk1 plugged in will effect my boot up.

As it has active on it, do I need to set the partition on my Disk 3 drive to be active first?

If it doesnt effect boot up, then I can just reinstall it and remove the partition?

If it does effect the boot up, what are my options?

Thanks for your time.

 

[Steele]

If you're just trying to format disk 2 just right click, simple volume and follow the prompts.

Thanks, I have just done this. Now the drive is showing

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Does that sort the issue for you, is that all you need?

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Try Barefoot Kid's suggestions in post 12. If that does not work, we regroup and reconsider.

Ultimately--you want 1 system reserved, marked active, on the same drive as the C partition. Nothing else marked active.

 

[Steele]

OK, Thanks guys,

I guess Ill try setting active on the C drive partition and restart and see what happens

Thanks for your time

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Here's the best way forward.


Power down the PC and disconnect all the HDD/SSDs and reconnect the SSD that is now connected to disk 3 to the #1 SATA port of the motherboard leaving all the others disconnected, then in the PC BIOS set that as the first boot device.

Then using Option Two of this tutorial mark that System Reserved as the Active partition and do the 3 separate startup repairs in Option One to make that the System partition.

Startup Repair - Run 3 Separate Times
​

After that's done you can power down and reconnect the other HDD/SSDs

If you do that (mark C: Active) it won't work and will be a waste of time, at the least; if all is good with you leave well-enough alone.

 

[gregrocker]

Neither of the System Reserved partitions are booting anything as they're intended to do when present. Somehow - likely through repairs - the System flag on Disk3 got moved onto the C partition which is where C is being booted from now.

Barefoot gave you the steps to move the System flag to System Reserved. It's up to you if you want it to be the boot partition as intended, or want to leave it booting from C as it is now.

I would reboot and tap F8 to see if you still have System Recovery Options on the Advanced Boot Options menu. If not it might be worth it to you to write the System boot files back onto Disk3 System Reserved which normally restores the Recovery Options (WinRE).

 

[AddRAM]

The 1st thing i would do is get rid of the letter E: on disk 3 and mark it Active.

Make a startup repair disc, start>control panel>backup & restore.

Disconnect all your drives and put your C: drive ( now on disk 3 ) on to disk 0 and get it booting and then go from there. Label it so you don`t get confused.

Install the 1 TB drive ( to disk 1 ) and format the entire drive. If there is nothing on it.

Install the other 120 GB ssd. ( to disk 2 ) Format it.

Install the 64 GB ssd ( to disk 3 )